[ The future liberated and de-Zionised Palestine may look now as a
fantasy, but unlike Fantasy Israel, it has the best chance to
galvanize locally, regionally and globally every person with a modicum
of decency.]
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JUDEA VS ’FANTASY ISRAEL: ILAN PAPPÉ ON THE COLLAPSE OF ISRAELI
PILLARS, AND THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR PALESTINE  
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Ilan Pappé
July 31, 2023
The Palestine Chronicle
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_ The future liberated and de-Zionised Palestine may look now as a
fantasy, but unlike Fantasy Israel, it has the best chance to
galvanize locally, regionally and globally every person with a modicum
of decency. _

Israel's so-called Flag March., Photo: Nettadi, via Wikimedia Commons
// Palestine Chronicle

 

Israel’s legitimacy, in fact, its very viability, rests on two main
pillars.

First, the material pillar, which includes its military strength,
high-tech capabilities, and a solid economic system.

The above factors enable the state to build a strong network of
alliances with countries that would like to benefit from what Israel
has to offer: arms, securitization, spyware, high-tech knowledge, and
modernized systems of agricultural production.

In return, Israel does not just ask for money but also for support
against its eroded international image.

Second, the moral pillar. This aspect was particularly important in
the early days of the Zionist project and statehood.

Israel sold to the world a twofold narrative: One, that Israel’s
creation was the only panacea for antisemitism, and two, that Israel
was built in a place that religiously and culturally belonged to the
Jewish people.

The presence of an indigenous population, the Palestinian people, was
initially denied altogether; then, it was dwarfed. And when the
existence of the Palestinians was finally acknowledged, it was
presented as an unfortunate coincidence.

Then, Israel, the self-declared ‘only democracy in the Middle
East’, branded itself a generous peacemaker who is willing to
resolve the problem by offering ‘concessions’ over its supposed
right to the whole of historical Palestine.

Collapse of ‘Morality’

It is hard to pinpoint exactly when the moral pillar upon which Israel
was sustained began eroding, to the extent that it is now crumbling
before our very eyes.

Some would say that the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 started
this process of erosion, while others look at the First Palestinian
Intifada in 1987 as the transformative moment. Either way, Israel’s
image within world public opinion has been changing for decades.

But what is often ignored is that, had it not been for Palestinian
resistance and resilience, the legitimacy and morality of the Jewish
state would have not been put to a test, where it is now being
constantly examined against international law, common sense, and
ethical behavior.

I would argue that as early as 1948 – when Israel was declared a
state atop the ruins of historic Palestine –  the facts on the
ground became known to more and more people around the world. This has
been a direct outcome of the efforts made by the Palestinians and
their ever-growing solidarity networks.

Israel’s image – whether internally or internationally – as a
democratic state and a member of the ‘civilized nations’ didn’t
seem to match the new information. Increasingly, the so-called Israeli
democracy was exposed as an apartheid regime, abusing Palestinian
civil and human rights on a daily basis.

Still, the exposure of the true nature of Israel, and widespread
public rejection of the Israeli narrative, did not seem to register
among ruling political elites and governments around the world, whose
attitude towards Israel remained largely unchanged.

On the contrary, governments in the global north are the ones leading
the charge against the various solidarity movements with the
Palestinians. They seem determined to suppress the freedom of speech
of their own societies by legislating against civil initiatives which
call for boycotting, sanctioning and divesting from Tel Aviv.

The global south is not much better, where governments and rulers
ignore the demand of their societies to take a firm stand against
Israel. This includes Arab regimes, who are queuing to normalize their
diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv.

Until the latest November 2022 elections in Israel, it seemed that
international silence and/or complicity had protected Israel from
translating the shift in public opinion into concrete actions. The
evidence for this was that the brave and truly impressive work of
movements such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS)
has not influenced the reality on the ground even a bit.

Until November 2022, I assumed that the inability to translate public
opinion into tangible politics was a result of the cynicism of our
political systems all over the world. Now, however, I truly believe
that only a change in the way politics from above are conducted will
translate the incredible solidarity with the Palestinians into a
formative power on the ground.

When Israel offered Germany missiles worth 4 billion euros and offered
The Netherlands another kind of missile worth 300 million euros (to
protect them from what, exactly?), political commentators in Israel
argued that such weapons would serve as the best antidote against what
they called the campaign to delegitimize Israel.

The Israeli media was actually proud to announce that arms allow the
country to buy silence from Europe so that any words of condemnation
of the atrocities Israeli soldiers and settlers commit in Palestine
are not translated into action.

‘Fantasy Israel’ vs Judea

Yet, there is more. A certain Jewish electorate inside Israel even
deceived itself – in fact, they still do – in believing that the
West supports Israel because it adheres to a Western “value
system” based on democracy and liberalism.

I call this construct ‘Fantasy Israel’.

In November 2022, Fantasy Israel collapsed for all intents and
purposes.

The Israeli Jewish electorate, which won the election, never had much
admiration for Western “value systems” of democracy and
liberalism.

On the contrary, it wishes to live in a more theocratic, nationalist,
racist and even fascist Jewish state; one that stretches all over
historical Palestine, including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The Israelis call this alternative idea of the state, ‘Judea’,
which is now at war with Fantasy Israel.

The people of Judea do not care about international legitimacy. Their
leaders and gurus are highly impressed by Israel’s new allies in the
world, be they the leaders of the far-right parties in the West or
far-right movements in countries like India.

These nationalist and fascist leaders seem to admire the state of
Judea and are willing to provide it with an international network of
support. This has already translated into policy in countries where
the extreme right is very powerful, such as Italy, Hungary, Poland,
Greece, Sweden, Spain and, if Trump’s re-wins, then also the United
States.

On the surface, it looked like a very gloomy scenario had unfolded in
November 2022.

This, however, is not entirely true.

The failure of Fantasy Israel has exposed an intriguing nexus between
the moral and material pillars.

It transpired that the neo-liberal, capitalist system has no reason to
invest in the state of Judea if indeed it replaces Fantasy Israel. The
international financial corporations and the international high-tech
industry regard states such as Judea as unstable and risky
destinations for foreign investment.

In fact, they are already pulling their funds and investments away
from Israel. The BDS movement would have to work very hard to convince
unions and churches around the world to divest from Israel billions of
dollars in order to match the funds that have already been taken
outside Israel since November 2022.

This type of divestment is not morally driven. In the past, Israel has
served as an attractive destination for international financial
investment regardless of its ruthless oppression of the Palestinians.

But it seems that the image of Fantasy Israel, and in particular the
notion that its judicial system was able to protect neoliberal and
capitalist investments, persuaded foreign investors to pour money into
Israel with the anticipation of good dividends in return.

Now, the prospects of the state of Judea replacing Fantasy Israel is
seriously affecting the economic viability of the Jewish state.
Therefore, the ability of Israel to use its industry or money to
influence other countries’ policies towards the Jewish State is more
limited.

Time for Mobilization

The collapse of Fantasy Israel has also exposed cracks in the social
cohesion, and in the readiness of many Israelis to devote as much time
and energy to military service as they did in the past.

Moreover, the attack on the Israeli judicial system and the erosion of
its alleged independence will expose Israeli soldiers and pilots to
possible indictments as war criminals abroad by individual countries
or by the International Court of Justice (ICC). Indeed, international
law cannot intervene in domestic issues if the local judicial systems
are considered independent and solid.

This is a rare moment in history that opens opportunities for those
struggling for liberation and justice in Palestine.

In a meeting in Tehran, Iran advised the Palestinian movement Hamas
and the Lebanese movement Hezbollah to refrain from any action and
allow an implosion to take part from within Israel.

I disagree, though I don’t mean that there is, or ever was, a
military possibility to liberate Palestine. However, this is a time to
energize the popular Palestinian resistance and unite both the
Palestinians and their supporters around an agreed vision and program.
This mobilization is rooted in the Palestinian national struggle for
democracy and self-determination ever since 1918.

The future liberated and de-Zionised Palestine may look now as a
fantasy, but unlike Fantasy Israel, it has the best chance to
galvanize locally, regionally and globally every person with a modicum
of decency. It would also provide a safe place for anyone living in
historical Palestine at the present or for whoever was expelled from
there – Palestinian refugees around the world.

_[ILAN PAPPÉ is a professor at the University of Exeter. He was
formerly a senior lecturer in political science at the University of
Haifa. He is the author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, The
Modern Middle East, A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two
Peoples, and Ten Myths about Israel. Pappé is described as one of
Israel’s 'New Historians' who, since the release of pertinent
British and Israeli government documents in the early 1980s, have been
rewriting the history of Israel’s creation in 1948. He contributed
this article to The Palestine Chronicle
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* Israel
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* Palestine
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* Palestinians
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* Benjamin Netanyahu
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* Occupied Territories
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* West Bank
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* Gaza
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* Jewish settlements
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* Palestinian resistance
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* Palestinian refugees
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* Religious Zionist Party
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* Itamar Ben-Gvir
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* Israeli politics
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* Israeli political crisis
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